


Kiss With Your Teeth

by resonae



Category: Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Vampire, M/M, Vampire!Raleigh
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-12
Updated: 2013-08-12
Packaged: 2017-12-23 04:53:48
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,778
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/922223
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/resonae/pseuds/resonae
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In a world where vampires and humans coexist and can even form Bonds with each other, Chuck Hansen is a victim of a forcibly torn Bond he made when he was too young to know anything. Cue in a hungry Raleigh, and their fumble at attempting a normal relationship.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Kiss With Your Teeth

Raleigh hissed as he clawed the sheets beneath him. It tore where his nails caught, but he couldn’t care less for the moment. He hadn’t fed in months, and the failed Drift with Mako had just been his breaking point. His head snapped up when he heard his door clank open and a burst of _smells so good_ followed. “Hansen.” Raleigh growled. “This is _not_ the time.”

 

Chuck nodded, strangely calm. “I’m not here to pick a fight. Drink from me.” Raleigh gripped his fists so hard that his nails sliced his palms. But before he could say anything, Chuck cut in to say, “I’m the best candidate. I’m the strongest in the Shatterdome, physically.”

 

Raleigh growled in his throat. “Strength isn’t going to matter once I start drinking from you.”

 

Chuck was strangely calm. “I meant you can drink more from me than from Mako, or my old man.”

 

Raleigh punched the wall next to Chuck – it dented, but Chuck didn’t flinch. “It’s illegal for a vampire to drink from a human. _Get. Out_.”

 

But Chuck didn’t move a muscle. “It’s not illegal for a registered vampire to drink from a consenting human. And I’m consenting.” He pulled his phone out of his pocket, and Raleigh realized that he’d been recording the entire conversation. “You hear that, Raleigh Becket? The phone’s recording, and I’m saying I’m consenting. Now it’s not a crime.”

 

With that, Chuck shoved his arm in Raleigh’s face. Raleigh wasn’t prepared for the sudden rush of the smell, and before he knew it, his fangs were sliding out and he had bit deeply into Chuck’s wrist. Not a good position, Raleigh’s brain supplied, as Chuck’s legs buckled under him when sedatives flowed into his veins. Raleigh slid an arm across Chuck’s waist, his brain still in a daze. He managed to tear himself away from the vein long enough to deposit Chuck on the bed.

 

He’d been starving for so long that the blood flowing past his lips was pure heaven. He was so drunk on the feeling that he almost didn’t notice the presence of someone slipping in his room. He tensed for a moment, but the intruder did nothing, and so he kept on drinking. Until there was a touch on his shoulder. He struck backward, his fangs bared, and came face-to-face with Herc Hansen.

 

“You’re gonna suck him dry,” Herc said. His grip was iron-strong, on par with Raleigh’s vampiric strength, and it was like cold water to Raleigh’s face.

 

“Shit.” Raleigh said, drawing his fangs back immediately. He didn’t know what he looked like, with Chuck’s blood all over his lips and fangs, baring them at Herc. “Sir, I’m so sorry – he.. he just shoved his hand in my face and I wasn’t prepared..”

 

“Not your fault.” Herc eyed the discarded phone on the floor and picked it up. “I knew he was headed this way the moment I saw him disappear.” Raleigh had about a million questions in his head. Herc narrowed his eyes at him as he stepped past, gingerly fingering the torn wound on his son’s arm. “I’ll answer one question.”

 

Raleigh had about a split second to go through _how is it that Chuck knows vampire laws so well; how did Chuck know we can drink from his arm, not his neck; how did you know he was going to come here; why are you two so familiar with vampires_ and settled on, “W-was your wife a vampire?”

 

He realized the question could have been offensive the moment it was out of his lips, but Herc laughed. “No, Angela was human.” He pulled Chuck to his feet – Chuck was unsteady, but still conscious enough that he could shuffle his feet along with Herc’s help – and nodded at Raleigh. Raleigh recognized a dismissal when he saw it, even though he was in his own room.

 

\--

 

He didn’t see much of Chuck or Herc after the incident, but he _did_ seek out Sasha and Aleksis, since Sasha was a vampire and Aleksis was her Bonded. She smiled at him in an I-knew-this-was-coming way. He’d honestly turned over a billion possibilities in his head, and this seemed likely. Chuck had known Sasha and Aleksis since he was a child. It made sense that their relationship was familiar to Chuck.

 

But Sasha said, in her thick Russian accent that was way too attractive for its own good, “Some things are best left alone.” She grinned like a shark at him, and his inner vampire whimpered. Almost. Kind of. “We vampires co-exist with humans, Raleigh. We need them for sustenance. But since we are so much stronger than they are, they also rely on us to come to their aid when they need. Like this.” She motioned to the Shatterdome around them. “Many of the technicians here are our kind. There was one,” she said, her black eyes glinting blood-red for a moment, “in the Striker Eureka crew. He is no longer there.”

 

Aleksis said something in Russian, and Sasha snorted. “You are right. I have said more than enough. Head on your way, Raleigh.”

 

He was chewing over her Striker Eureka crew comment in his head when he almost tripped and landed flat on his face. When he looked, Max was grinning up at him, his tongue flopping out and dripping to the floor. “Max.” He smiled, reaching down to scratch his ears. He blinked, remembering that wherever Max was, Chuck wasn’t far away. Or maybe it was the other way around.

 

He looked up to find Chuck standing awkwardly nearby. There was medical tape slapped over his left arm, but the bruise bled over the outer edges of it. Raleigh winced, because he should have taken better care of his feeding partner, not drunk him almost to his death and then have his teeth tear out flesh. He nudged Max along, and he bit the inside of his cheek before saying, “Your arm…”

 

Chuck looked down and yanked his long-sleeve down over the bandage. “It’s nothing. It just felt stuffy under the sleeve.” He looked like he wanted to haul ass.

 

Raleigh grabbed him before he could. “Listen. We need to talk.”

 

Chuck stared at the hand, and then yanked his hand back. “No – I – we don’t. You can feed from me before you get like that again. Max, let’s go.” Chuck turned on his heels and speed-walked away, leaving Raleigh to stare at his back.

 

\--

 

A week passed before Raleigh decided to fuck all and approach Chuck again, this time under the pretense of feeding. Chuck had drawn his sleeve up and presented his clean arm. Raleigh hesitated. “Does your other arm still hurt?”

 

“Yeah. Don’t tear away this time, and you can drink from this arm again next time.” Chuck said, like it was completely normal. Raleigh still paused before he let his fangs slide out and he bit into the offered arm. Chuck flinched, minutely, but they sank into a soft lull, Chuck’s body slumping against Raleigh’s as the sedative started to work. Raleigh moved automatically to support his back.

 

He slid his fangs back and lapped at the wounds, carefully watching to make sure the blood flow had stopped. Chuck had taken out gauze and alcohol before the session, so he carefully wiped the wound with alcohol before he applied gauze onto it. Chuck was still leaning heavily on him. His eyes were closed, but he said, “You don’t need to feed more often?” Chuck said, his voice heavy with sedative. “David… always fed everyday…”

 

David. Before Raleigh could push for more information, Chuck slumped fully against him, asleep. That might have been good, Raleigh realized in afterthought. He might have felt horrible if he interrogated Chuck while he was half-asleep on vampiric sedatives.

 

He left quietly when Herc came to find them, looking at Raleigh with a mixture of emotions, and dug into the files. Striker Eureka tech crew. David. David. It would be so much easier with a last name. At least he was able to limit the time period to crew members who were still active from 2018 onward. It still shook him, that Chuck had been piloting a Jaegar since he was 15, but now wasn’t the time.

 

He quickly sorted the files from human and vampire, but as Sasha had said, the vampire pile was bigger. It made sense, for so many vampires to work as a tech crew member. They were stronger, had better eyes, and were less susceptible to damage. He would have taken out the ones who were still on the crew, but he realized with a start that there wasn’t a single vampire on the current Striker Eureka crew.

 

He gritted his teeth and went through the Davids of the crew and came down with 4. He was flipping through the files, hoping for a hint that would alert him it was the right _David_ , when he came across one that had been dishonorably discharged. The other 3 had been honorably discharged, with high recommendations that sent them to high-paying jobs with great benefits.

 

Raleigh quickly shoved the files back to where they came from (Tendo had given him 10 minutes in the files, anyway), and flipped the last one open. The files betrayed almost nothing, except for one line, not typed on a computer but written neatly, “ _Disorderly conduct with minor pilot_ ”.

 

Raleigh felt his heart drop.

 

\--

 

It took him another week to compose himself, and then when he sought a Hansen out, it was Herc, not Chuck. Herc stared at him. “Tendo told me you went through Striker’s tech crew files.” Herc said. “I know what you saw.”

 

“I just wanted to tell you that it’s highly unlikely that a vampire needed to feed every single day.” Raleigh said, his anger bubbling.

 

Herc leveled his glare, but then deflated and said, “I didn’t know enough. Back then.” He rubbed his face, sighing, and said, “Chuck was so happy back then, you know. It was the first time I’d seen him so happy since… Since his mother died. So I just let it happen. They Bonded, and… well, I thought everything was going okay.”

 

Raleigh swallowed thickly, suddenly unsure if he wanted to know the outcomes of the relationship. “What happened?”

 

“David found a girl. Tore the Bond he had with Chuck. We were taking down a kaiju, in the Jaegar, when it happened. I felt it, when the tearing happened, and we had to get another Jaegar in because Chuck couldn’t get his bearings. The Sydney Shatterdome Marshall disavowed David, who tried to argue that personal relationships shouldn’t get in the way of professionalism, but the Marshall pointed out the tear had almost killed Chuck and me and had also endangered the lives of civilians. Plus, the tear was completely unprecedented, and nonconsensual. Chuck’s smart, you know – he wasn’t completely clueless… but David kept coming back to him for blood, and I think that made him feel better. He wasn’t expecting it.”

 

There was a thick silence after that. Raleigh blurted, “I’d never do that to him,” and Herc raised an eyebrow at him. “I wouldn’t,” Raleigh said, suddenly realizing he meant it.

 

Herc snorted. “Don’t get ahead of yourself, Becket.”

 

\--

 

Raleigh came to feed off of Chuck every week after that. The wound on his left arm hadn’t fully healed – it would probably scar – but the bruising had gone, so they swapped arms every week. One week, Chuck narrowed his eyes at Raleigh and said, “So what exactly are you planning?”

 

“What?”

 

“You talked to my dad, but you haven’t asked a single question about David to me.”

 

“Your dad told you I talked to him?”

 

Chuck gave him a look that said _excuse you, idiot_. “I Drift with him. In case you forgot.”

 

Right. Raleigh _had_ forgotten. Damn it. He should’ve taken that into account when he went to talk to Herc. He rubbed the small dents in Chuck’s arms. Some had healed completely, so much that even Raleigh couldn’t find them anymore, but some were just about to heal and remained bumps of new skin on Chuck’s arms. “Does it hurt, when I bite?”

 

“Like a bitch.” Chuck snorted. “But it hurts more when you’re hit on the side of the head by a kaiju.”

 

“I’m trying to have a serious conversation here.”

 

“You’re trying to _avoid_ a serious conversation.” Chuck corrected, looking way too nonchalant for someone who was the victim of a torn Bond. “I’m giving you an opportunity to not sneak around. Tendo told me you got into the Striker crew’s files, too.” Damn Tendo Choi and his big mouth. “I would’ve found out anyway. Since dad knew. And, reminding you, _we Drift_.”

 

“Don’t be such a smartass,” Raleigh hissed, baring his fangs.

 

Chuck wasn’t impressed. “First in the class.” They glared at each other, neither willing to back down, until Chuck deflated visibly, surprising Raleigh. “What is it that you want from me, anyway? Is it just blood?”

Chuck sounded defeated, and Raleigh leaned back on his heels. “You came to me, Hansen.” He said, his voice soft. He caught Chucks’ wrist and rubbed at the bite marks there. “What was it that you wanted from _me_? I saw David’s picture. We look alike. Is that why you came to me that day?”

 

Chuck fell back onto his bed. “I don’t know, all right? You were both stupid and American and…” His voice trailed off. “No reason. Max was playing matchmaker. He can tell, you know, between human and vampire.”

 

“I guess we smell more bloody.” Raleigh shrugged, remembering how the dog had sniffed at him the first day. “Are you interested?” Chuck gaze was sharp. “Let’s do this in a more normal way, yeah? I get you’ve lived in the cockpit your entire life, that you’ve never had a _proper_ boyfriend. Come on, get dressed, clean up that bite and we’ll go out to dinner.”

 

Chuck stared at him, and then ducked his head, except Raleigh could see his bright red ears. “You clean the bite up for me, you has-been,” he snapped, not that Raleigh could feel any bite behind the jab.

 

\--

 

One date turned into two, to three, to four, to a date every day they weren’t deployed for kaiju. Raleigh was sincerely enjoying their nightly outings (he swore only half of it was because he was amused at Chuck’s first-ever date butterflies). He was pointedly ignoring Herc’s death-level glares at him, although he didn’t think the death-threats would come true until a Bond happened.

 

“I think he’ll do worse if you don’t Bond soon,” Chuck said one day, before falling asleep against Raleigh after he fed.

 

Sometimes, the truth that Chuck mumbled before he fell asleep into sedated sleep was the biggest shock of Raleigh’s day.

 

\--

 

When Chuck offered him his arm, Raleigh pushed it down. Chuck frowned. “Tomorrow’s the day. You need to drink up.”

 

“Tomorrow’s the day.” Raleigh agreed. “You might not come out of it alive. Are you okay with that?”

 

Chuck shrugged. “I’m ready for that. I went into each battle thinking I wasn’t going to come out of it alive. But this one’s different. Once we get the bomb in there, everyone else will be safe.” Raleigh said nothing. He’d known this was the type of person Chuck was. Abrasive, rough and insulting on the outside, but there was no one else in the world who would think _of course I’d give up my life for everyone else on the planet_. For Chuck it was something so obvious. “You wouldn’t?”

 

“I would,” Raleigh admitted, “but I wouldn’t be so nonchalant as you are. Most people wouldn’t be.” Chuck frowned as if everyone else on the planet were the weird ones, but Raleigh brushed the conversation away. “My point is, both of us may die tomorrow.” He paused. “You more than me.” Chuck raised an eyebrow at him. “How would you feel Bonding with me?”

 

Chuck started visibly, and narrowed his eyes at Raleigh. Raleigh must have come off as sincere, because he then quietly said, “Can’t. You’d end up with a torn Bond if I die tomorrow. And… I’d end up with one if you died.”

 

Raleigh nodded. “I know. And I’m asking you to make the decision.” Chuck looked like he thought he was being played, so Raleigh quickly snatched his hand. “I’m not joking, Chuck. I mean it. I care about you.”

 

Chuck scowled. “You don’t Bond because you _care_ about someone, Becket. You make a Bond with someone-“

 

Raleigh interrupted, and when he said everything he said, he realized he meant every word. “Someone you love. Someone who means everything to you. Someone who you want to spend the rest of your life with. I know. And I’m asking you.” Chuck froze, then eyed him suspiciously. “I’m serious.”

 

Chuck ducked his head, but his ears burned. “I don’t have any lube.”

 

\--

 

They settled on a bottle of hand lotion that Raleigh ‘borrowed’ from Tendo’s desk. Chuck was on his back, naked as the day he was born, his legs spread out on either side of Raleigh. Raleigh, just as naked, was reading the label on the bottle. “It says ‘For external use only’.”

 

Chuck kicked the lotion out of his hands and caught it deftly, squeezed it into his palm, and gripped Raleigh’s very-interested cock with them. “I’m more worried about the vampire bite than having lotion up my ass.” Chuck raised a challenging eyebrow, and Raleigh pushed him down out of spite, kissing with all teeth and tongue (he’d retracted his fangs because he didn’t want to slice Chuck’s lips open).

 

Chuck’s hand wandered lower in between them as they kissed, gripping their cocks together with his lotioned hands. Raleigh groaned and bucked against the younger man beneath him, nibbling at his neck with human teeth. Chuck echoed his groan, bucking his hips upward to get more friction on his cock. Raleigh’s hands fell over Chuck’s gripping their cocks and hands tightly. “You’re young enough, right?” Raleigh challenged, and Chuck snarled at him.

 

He shot back, “Are _you_ young enough to come more than once in one go, old man?” Chuck reached up to nibble at Raleigh’s lip, and bit down hard on his chin when Raleigh gripped their cocks together and started pumping furiously. Chuck liked it rough, which suited Raleigh just fine. They kissed and it was all teeth clashing against each other, fighting for dominance in a never-ending battle until they came, almost simultaneously. Chuck yelled into Raleigh’s mouth and Raleigh groaned back, muffling each other’s sounds through the other’s throat.

 

It didn’t take long for Chuck’s cock to fatten in Raleigh’s hands again. _To be young again_ , Raleigh thought with a snort, and he felt Chuck’s own hand cup Raleigh’s cock, teasing the shaft with the pads of his fingers until it thickened again. “Not bad.” Chuck snickered.

 

Raleigh let his fangs out to nibble onto Chuck’s lip, piercing the thin skin there. “I’m not that old yet.” He lapped hungrily at the blood that dribbled out of the puncture. Chuck tried to lick his fangs, and he withdrew. “You’re going to slice your tongue open.”

 

Chuck’s eyes met him with stubborn challenge so characteristic of Chuck. “I’ll be careful. Stay still.” His hands – sticky from a combination of lotion and their release – gripped Raleigh’s shoulders, and a hesitant tongue flicked out to tap at one of Raleigh’s canines. Raleigh stayed stock-still, aware his fangs were sharper than knives. Chuck’s tongue slid down the length of the fang and cautiously tapped the daggered ends.

 

“Chuck.” Raleigh said, drawing back and frowning. But Chuck pulled him back and tapped the sharp ends again, and then cautiously drew his tongue along the edge.

 

Chuck jerked back. “Ow.” He held his tongue out of his lips, a shallow cut sliced open on the end of his tongue.

 

“I told you.” Raleigh sighed, and reached forward to lap at his tongue. He took it into his mouth and suckled gently, tapping at the wound gently with his tongue before letting go.

 

Chuck tested his healed tongue against his own teeth. “Weird.” Raleigh raised an eyebrow. “You know. Your fangs hurt, but your saliva heals. Weird.”

 

“Wouldn’t do to have our Bonded bleed to death. Our fangs make the blood thinner, you know. So it flows better. Keeps it from coagulating, too. So our saliva does the opposite.” When Chuck reached forward to test his tongue against his fangs again, Raleigh withdrew his fangs. “ _Chuck_.”

 

Chuck scowled. “Come on. You can just heal me again.” He kept tapping at the edges of Raleigh’s human teeth until Raleigh sighed and brought his head back so he didn’t tear Chuck’s tongue open when he let his fangs back out.

 

Chuck cut his tongue open a few more times until he figured out the perfect pressure so run his tongue under Raleigh’s fangs. The process and the gesture was oddly intimate, and when Chuck was satisfied enough, Raleigh found himself strangely aroused. “Is that something you did with..”

 

“No.” Chuck cut him off. “Not at all. With him it was just drink and fuck. And no more talk about him.” He squeezed Raleigh’s cock with his hands and Raleigh hissed at Chuck’s cocky grin. He bit Chuck’s chin with his human teeth and Chuck kneed his sides.

 

He pinned Chuck’s knees down, causing him to spread his legs wider. “Are we fighting or are we fucking?”

 

Chuck said mock-sweetly, “I thought we were Bonding.” It made Raleigh bare his fangs at him again but they both were laughing when they kissed again, Raleigh’s hands caressing the insides of Chuck’s thighs as Chuck lazily pumped their cocks together again.

 

Raleigh stopped him. “I want to come inside you this time.” Chuck flushed a dark red and punched his shoulder. Raleigh grinned at him, fangs out for emphasis. “Let’s Bond.”

 

He grabbed a sheet, wiped Chuck’s stomach and his shoulders hastily, and squeezed out almost the entire bottle of Tendo’s lotion onto his hands. “Need to buy him a new bottle,” Chuck snickered, and Raleigh rolled his eyes. He brought his lotion-coated hands under Chuck and circled the ring before slowly pushing a finger in.

 

“Tight,” he whispered into Chuck’s tense shoulder. “Relax, Chuck.” Chuck nodded silently against his shoulder. “Have you.. had anyone else..?” Chuck shook his head, snorting lightly. Right. Raleigh shuffled forward to push his knees under Chuck’s hips and gently prodded his way into Chuck, carefully slow. He pulled his hand out to rub more lotion onto himself and pushed in two fingers, grinning when Chuck wriggled to meet him halfway. A bit more exploration had Raleigh reaching in a little deeper than usual to push down on a bundle of nerves that made Chuck shudder. “Mm, beautiful.” Raleigh whispered, kissing down Chuck’s shoulders.

 

Chuck’s eyes gleamed when Raleigh withdrew his fingers and started rubbing lotion onto his shaft. He raised his legs to hook his ankles behind Raleigh’s back and pull him forward. Their foreheads touched and Raleigh nipped at Chuck’s bottom lip with his fangs, once again breaking the skin. He didn’t bother closing up the wound as he suckled from it, pushing slowly inside Chuck.

 

Chuck was all tight heat, but he was pliant under Raleigh’s touch, breathing in shuddering gasps as Raleigh lapped at his lip to close up the wound. “All that blood drinking,” Chuck gasped when Raleigh bottomed out. “I’m not gonna have much left for you to drink for the Bond.”

 

Raleigh chuckled and he canted his hips back until his cock popped out with a wet squelch, and then pressed back in slowly until he was fully inside. “Feels good?” Raleigh asked, licking a strike across Chuck’s cheek. He hooked an arm behind Chuck’s back so he could have easier access to the place Chuck’s neck met his shoulder. He could feel Chuck’s jumping pulse under his lip and it sent blood straight to his cock.

 

Chuck groaned. “Are you – getting _bigger_?” He pulled on Raleigh’s hair until Raleigh was forced to look up. “Fuck me already.”

 

Raleigh chuckled and pulled out until only the head of his cock was inside Chuck, and then slammed back in. Chuck’s breath left him in a puff, and he sat back up, unwinding his arm from around Chuck to grip at Chuck’s hips and catching Chuck’s leaking cock in his hand. Chuck swatted his hand away, and Raleigh blinked. “You don’t want that?”

 

Chuck’s eyes twinkled in challenge. “Make me come from fucking me alone, old man.”

 

Raleigh smirked right back, gripped Chuck’s hips hard, and yanked him over his cock. Chuck groaned and Raleigh leaned forward until their bodies were as close as they could get while he pistoned into Chuck. Chuck reached up to dig his nails down Raleigh’s back, groaning and panting in heat. Sweat made his grip slippery, but he impatiently wiped his hands on his sheets and gripped Chuck hard again.

 

Chuck suddenly bucked up and growled wildly, thick release splattering between them. His inner walls fluttered and squeezed tightly around Raleigh, and he bit, hard, down into Chuck’s neck, tearing into the jugular vein.

 

Blood burst into his lips and he drank religiously, slamming inside Chuck as his own release came and he shot his load inside. Chuck’s hands slipped from his back, and Raleigh loosened his iron grip around Chuck’s hips to catch his hands and hold them as he drank, feeling the Bond spark between them like electricity. Chuck let out a soft cry and Raleigh shuddered, spilling the final spurts of his orgasm as the finished Bond coursed through them like fire.

 

He lapped apologetically at the bite, licking until the wound stopped bleeding. He absently dug through the bedside drawer with his hand as he kissed the jagged bite mark. He dabbed the wound with rubbing alcohol just in case, and Chuck grinned up at him, sedative from the bite making him sluggish. “You’re still inside.”

 

Raleigh bent down until their noses were bumping each other, and licked into Chuck’s lips. “Yeah. You think you’re up for another round?” Chuck laughed sleepily and punched his arm. “I’m joking. I’m not gonna fuck you when you’re asleep.”

 

“You can.” Chuck said, sleepily, creaking an eye and smirking lopsidedly. “If you’re into that kind of thing.”

 

“Ha. Ha.” Raleigh rubbed Chuck’s waist and pulled out slowly. Chuck let out a satisfied sigh and rolled over onto his side, digging himself into Raleigh’s pillow and offering Raleigh a perfect view of his ass, including the dribble of semen leaking from his cheeks.

 

Raleigh felt his cock kindle in interest. “God damn it, Hansen,” Raleigh sighed. Time for a cold shower.

 

\--

 

“He’s not dead,” Raleigh screamed into his comm. “I can feel – the Bond hasn’t torn.”

 

Mako was staring up at him, wide-eyed. Her hair was plastered all over her face from sweat and the ocean water, but as soon as she heard, she stood on their pod, her sharp eyes scanning the waters around them.

 

[The – The _what_?] Herc snapped at him.

 

“The Bond.” Raleigh tried to get himself to stand but found his legs had absolutely no strength. “We Bonded yesterday. If he died, I should feel the torn Bond, but it’s – it’s still going.” There was silence across the comms, then Herc started barking orders for a scan across the ocean, under it, and for any signs of the Jaegar suit on any of the shores.

 

Mako then soundlessly dove into the ocean. He watched her, willing his legs to work, swim in all sorts of directions, but when she came back, breathless and impatiently shoving an unruly lock of blue hair from her cheek, she shook her head. She was in the water again in thirty seconds, and Raleigh finally got the blood in his legs running again. Pins and needles attacked his entire legs, but he gritted his legs and shook them out and dove in the opposite direction of Mako.

 

The Bond was liquid fire between them, pulsing and very much _alive_. There was just _no_ way Chuck could be dead, not with the Bond so strong between them. [Mako! Raleigh!] Tendo’s voice was crisp in his ear. [There’s a pod coming up! Hundred yards north of where you are. Wait for the chopper.] Raleigh turned around and swam back to his pod, and Mako met him there, standing up again.

 

“Negative,” Mako snapped. “We are swimming to him. I see it.” She dove in first, but he was a faster swimmer than she was, and he climbed on the pod, melted and dented almost out of recognition. He kicked the pod open, and Mako climbed on next to him.

 

Raleigh gripped the dented plates and tore them apart, the burnt bindings like paper to his vampiric strength. “Broken femur.” He reported. “Both left and right. The pod crushed his legs. Left femoral vein damaged – we need a med team here _now_.”

 

Mako was doing her job to unstrap Chuck from the suit, nimble fingers working at the helmet and chucking it out to the side. She gripped his chin and held her ears close to his nose. “Breathing.” She announced. “But fading fast. He is burned on his torso and arms, but they do not look like radiation burns.”

 

[He’s alive.] Herc’s voice was shaking minutely.

 

Mako leaned back on her ankles and smiled. “He is alive, sir. Your son is alive.”

 

\--

 

Herc silently came to stand next to him after Chuck was stabilized and hooked up to about a hundred different things. “So.” Herc started. “Bond.”

 

“Uh. Yeah.”

 

Herc wasn’t looking at him – just straight at Chuck, who was sleeping peacefully and looked pretty good, considering he was on life support. Almost his entire body was covered in bandages or wires or tubes, so the scar of the Bond on his neck stood out like a sore thumb. It was a permanent reminder of their Bond, and would stay there until they decided to dissolve it. Not that Raleigh was thinking of dissolving it anytime soon. Herc reached over to thumb the scar. “You take good care of him, Becket.”

 

Right. Raleigh half-expected a punch thrown in his direction, but Herc patted him on the shoulder and sat down next to Chuck, and that was that.

 

They sat in comfortable silence for the next few days. Sometimes they’d fall into conversation about the future of the Jaegar program and the PPDC now that the kaiju breach was closed, but then they’d lull back into warm silence.

 

Chuck was gradually weaned off the various life support until he was doing fine on an IV drip and an oxygen mask instead of the tube down his throat. He showed no signs of waking up, but his brain scan showed no damage. “Fucker’s taking his time,” Herc said, snorting, when Raleigh brought it up. “You’ll get used to it, mate.”

 

So Raleigh settled back down and let Chuck take his time.

 

\--

 

About a week passed before Raleigh got impatient again, fiddling with the IV line. He had Max deposited on his lap. Herc had left for Marshall duties, and Raleigh was just about bored out of his mind. Mako and Tendo dropped by often, and so did Newt and Hermann. (Newt wanted to test how a Drift worked between a vampire and his Bonded, but Raleigh firmly refused all of that until Chuck was awake again.) But it was lunchtime, and he was bored out of his mind.

 

And maybe a bit hungry. In terms of human _and_ vampire food.

 

He sniffed at Max, who sniffed back at him. He tried to scratch Max behind the ears, but he whined and shoved his head away.

 

“Doesn’t like it when you do that. Gotta get him behind the neck.”

 

Raleigh’s head snapped up to find Chuck struggling up, pulling his oxygen mask off with one hand. Raleigh stood up and let Max jump off his lap. “Don’t do that.” He stopped Chuck from pulling the mask off. “You sound like you ate a bucket of gravel.”

 

Chuck glared at him best as he could through sunken eyes. “Hi to you, too.” He let Raleigh prop him up with pillows. “Water?”

 

“Ice chips.”

 

Chuck waved his hand. “Yeah, whatever.” He pulled his oxygen mask off so he could suck on the ice chips, and Raleigh snapped it back on. “Ow.” Chuck glared. “How long was I out?”

 

Raleigh quickly glanced at the calendar. “Eight days.” Chuck winced and shoved his arm up at Raleigh. “Chuck, I’m not drinking from you now. Get better first.” He pressed his face to Chuck’s hand, and Chuck pressed his fingers into Raleigh’s cheek. Raleigh let the relief wash over him, let himself relax and lean on their Bond, throbbing wonderfully between them. Chuck’s fingers pressing against his cheek anchored him and Chuck poked him until he sat back up.

 

“I want more ice chips,” Chuck demanded, and after he was through almost the entire bucket of ice, he seemed satisfied. “Okay, I don’t have breath of death anymore. Kiss me.”

 

Raleigh stared – he couldn’t help it. He laughed, and pressed his forehead to Chuck’s, sliding Chuck’s oxygen mask off. Chuck’s lips were cold, and when he licked inside, his teeth and tongue were chilled. “You just drank whatever crap was in your mouth for 8 days. That’s disgusting.” Chuck snorted, and caught Raleigh’s tongue between his teeth, lightly.

 

They kissed until Chuck tapped his tongue against Raleigh’s teeth, and Raleigh pulled back a little to let his fangs slide out. Chuck carefully ran his tongue along the fangs, tapping the tips when he was done. Raleigh sighed, nibbled his lip, careful not to tear the skin, and slid down until his forehead was resting on Chuck’s shoulder.

 

“It feels awesome.” Chuck said, his voice vibrating around both of them.

 

“Waking up?”

 

“Yeah. Being alive. We won, didn’t we?”

 

Raleigh realized he had never told Chuck what had happened. “Yeah.” He decided to go for the full story later. “We won.”

 

Chuck barked out a laughter of relief, and Raleigh felt him stir as he pulled his oxygen mask back up. “The Bond. That feels good, too.”

 

Raleigh chuckled. “For better, for worse. For richer, for poorer. In sickness, and in health, until death do us part.”

 

Chuck flicked his cheek. “Fuck that. Not even death can do that.”

 

Raleigh laughed. He was so happy. Happier than he thought he could have ever been. “You think you can keep up with me?”

 

“You bring it on, has-been.” 


End file.
